First Generation Students: Reading Guide

Thirty-one alumni who were the first in their family to obtain a college degree share their experiences as first-generation students in this noteworthy new text. Their stories illuminate how the struggles of first-generation students are primarily due to a combination of multiple social inequities that are ignored, reinforced, and perpetuated by exclusive college systems. Speaking directly to current and future first-generation students, the authors offer tips and advice for success, along with powerful words of encouragement.

A stunning young adult novel about a teenager coming to terms with losing her sister and finding herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home.

From the author of Make Your Home Among Strangers, essays on being an "accidental" American--an incisive look at the edges of identity for a woman of color in a society centered on whiteness.

A companion to First in the Family: Your High School Years, this next-step guidebook straight from their peers tells first-generation college students how to stay in college and graduate.

How do children from undereducated and impoverished backgrounds get to college? What are the influences that lead them to overcome their socioeconomic disadvantages and sometimes the disapproval of families and friends to succeed in college? These are the basic questions Sandria Rodriguez posed to a diverse group of seventeen first-generation college graduates, including herself; their compelling life stories make important contributions to what little is known about this phenomenon.

The first Hispanic and third woman appointed to the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor has become an instant American icon. Now, with a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, she recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself.